Apr 28 2006
How Can He?
I am all about Psalm 51. Here is David, after Nathan confronted him over his murder of Uriah and his adultery with Bathsheba, turning to God.
The psalm opens with a plea for mercy from one who is undeserving:
Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your unfailing love;according to your great compassion
blot out my transgressions.Wash away all my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin.For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is always before me.
David recognizes his own unworthiness before a righteous God. He seeks forgiveness and purification that goes well beyond the ritual purifications required by the law. He wants purification at the heart level.
In the middle of the psalm he recognizes the need for a changed heart, or spirit. It’s interesting to see the repeated theme:
Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.Do not cast me from your presence
or take your Holy Spirit from me.Restore to me the joy of your salvation
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
He continues with praise and a desire to give God what He really desires in and from us:
O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise.You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;
you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart,
O God, you will not despise.
Interestingly, David ends with a plea for prosperity and talks again about the traditional sacrifices:
In your good pleasure make Zion prosper;
build up the walls of Jerusalem.Then there will be righteous sacrifices,
whole burnt offerings to delight you;
then bulls will be offered on your altar.
That didn’t make sense to me until I recognized that ritualized sacrifices (which God Himself ordained) are meaningless without the essential sacrifice of a broken spirit and a broken and contrite heart.
David didn’t deserve forgiveness or mercy from God. I often wonder how God can love us back-sliding, fist-shaking fools. It’s actually pretty simple: we’re His children, washed clean of our true natures by the sacrifice of His son. David knew the font of forgiveness and mercy, even centuries before the sacrifice of the Christ.
Ain’t forgiveness grand?
